so where did i leave you last.. right, the day when i have to go home.
So, this was the day that I’m supposed to head home. My plan is to be home before 10 PM so I can
still see the kids hopefully, and back tucking them at night again. In the upper stream of Mahakam, as I learned
in the past couple of days, your schedule doesn’t really mean crap.
Well, I began the journey with a little confidence. Pak Camat (the head of regency) had secured
me a seat to Samarinda in a Susi Air Flight.
Since I am a government officials, therefore I was on the priority list
to go to Samarinda. As we find out when
we get to Datah Dawai Airport, there were two flights on that day, one to Melak
in the morning and to Samarinda in the afternoon.
I learned the fact that I had or thought I had a secured
seat on the plane on Monday before I left for Long Pahangai. So I already booked a flight to Jakarta on
Friday from Samarinda in the afternoon.
But Pak Camat did warned me, even though I have the letter of
recommendation from him, but I still had a chance to be bumped off the flight
if there was a patient that needed transport that day.
Postive note!
So to ge to Datah Dawai, we have to take another boat ride,
about 90 minutes upstream to Long Lunuk.
Again, when I said boat, don’t think of it as a fancy boat like you’ve
seen on a music videos, it is this boat:
Now this was a legit adventure, at least for me. The boat is chartered, there is no public
boat operating upstream. Partly is
because the river is to shallow for large boat to pass. So 90 minutes of a boat ride, with limited
movement. And let me tell you in a
little secret, I can’t swim. So, this
boat, it has no lifejacket. Ow yay!
But the view upstream was breathtaking! With the morning midst adding the mystery of
the land, I wish I could take pictures as I blinked. Even then I don’t think it will do them justice. As we get deeper into the woods and the
Mahakam River is getting narrower, the wildlife began to appear. Saw a few monkeys, a legit eagle, and lush of
land that I thought only existed in prints.
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| Telkomsel Bakti (which i found out later it's an abbreviation for something i can't even remember now :))) |
Every time I had the chance to venture out to the offbeat
path, in the back of my mind I always think of my kids. What will their reaction when they see all of
this? I wanted to share it with them,
maybe one day I could save up enough money and gather up enough patience (this is most important, you can't buy this with any amount of money) to
take them wondering in these forests.
Because I know it will change their life for the better.
As I going upstream I passed few boats going downstream with kids going to school. Since Long Pahangai is the central village for the kecamatan, so all the public facilities are in Long Pahangai. So the school is only located in Long Pahangai. These kids, have to take this route every day, with the limited diesel that they have just to get an education. So you thought you got it rough.
One more thing about the wilderness of Mahakam, if you
travel here, you have to bring machete.
It is a must, because sometimes your path will be covered by trees that
wasn’t there before, so you can also say that these kids are always packing
when they go to school. My cousin will
fit right in (maybe I’ll let you in on the inside joke in another day).
So after what seems like forever for me not moving (which
one of my colleagues told me, she had to endured this for three hours going up
to Tiong Ohang which was a village in Long Apari, another outermost district in
Kalimantan Timur) we finally got into Long Lunuk.
Long Lunuk was similar to Long Pahangai, the narrow streets,
the people who know each other by name.
But since Long Lunuk has an airport, therefore it was a little bit more
crowded than Long Pahangai. We stuck
like a sore thumb there with our luggage going to the airport.
By the way, I’ve been to small airports, but this one was in
another league of small airports. We
have to pass through the village to go up to the airport. Susi Air is the only airline operating in the
airport. The ticket was still
handwritten, like the ticket I had for my first flight to Manado in 1994. Damn, that would be 25 years ago right?
So, with confidence I go up to the ticketing lady and
present myself with Pak Camat’s letter of recommendation. Then my worst fear came true. They had to cancel their flight on Wednesday
due to technical reasons, ergo, the patients that was supposed to be on the
flight on Wednesday, is piled up in this flight. This flight mind you, only have 12 seats,
guess who’s not important now.
Yep yours truly.
Like I said I found out there was another flight to Melak on
Friday. BUT… I found out on TUESDAY that
the flight out from Melak to Balikpapan OR Samarinda are full booked.
Again, my adventure is far from over.
I tried to reason, I tried to negotiate. But I am slapped with the harsh truth, that I
am nobody, and nobody cares about you (thanks Mr. Minhaj by telling your son
that, so it’s the attitude I carry with me nowadays too). So defeated I took the ticket to Melak. Hoping I could get a go-show tickets from
people missing their flight so I still can go home on Friday before 10 PM to
tuck my kids to sleep.
It is not my life if it is not with adventure.
As we took off from Datah Dawai, my head filled with
thoughts. One of them is that I have no
choice but going by land, to catch the only morning flight available from
Samarinda on 7.30 AM the next day. So I
asked one of my colleague how long was the ride from Melak to Samarinda.
It’s 8 hours.
8 hours ride to another wilderness!!! Yep another one for the book.
But for the time being, I was enjoying the flight on a
PropJet. I took a flight on a Double
Otter once, but this one is different, the seats are much more comfy and they
do not separate the pilot’s chamber and the passengers. What I like about small planes rides are you
can still see outside clearly, and on most of the part you’re flying under the
clouds, so less turbulence than large planes.
When we landed in Melak, I immediately went to the ticketing
office to see whether anyone was being stupid and missing their flight that
day. They told me I just missed the
check in for the flight to Balikpapan by five minutes! Five minutes!
My dumb luck.
Ow well, is there a next flight I asked, they said there
will be flight available to Samarinda, but for the time being it is full
booked, so if I want, I could just wait to see if anyone cancelled or miss
their flight. I’m not the one to gamble. I always took the safe course. But this time I was desperate, what the hell
I said, I’ll wait for an hour and thirty minutes, no rush. It’s not like I can catch my scheduled plane
by land.
As I waited for the chance that anyone will screw up that
day, I sat there reflecting, I always got this adventure trips. My first one was when I went to Bangkok and
there was a sit in on the airport and I ended up weaving my way down to Jakarta
via train to Penang to catch a flight to KL and finally to Jakarta. And then it was that first Morotai trip, when
my carefully planned business trip suddenly coincide with the president’s
trip. That one was intense too.
My life was an adventure after all.
Anyway, after a long wait, and me going back and forth
asking whether I was lucky that day. I
was not. Therefore I had to endure the 8
hour long road trip.
Okay, here’s how stars is always aligned my way. As I was asking the airport guy whether they
have a number for a chartered car to Samarinda (I’m too tired to share a ride
with strangers for 8 hours) the guy who was standing next to me said he does.
He’s a guy in his twenties, handsome built, with charming
smile. I had bad experience with guys
like that, so I put my guard up (a little).
Anyway, he gave me a number, but it wasn’t a go. Then he made some calls. I was still guarded, is this a scam? Am I being conned?
Turns out Dimas, that was his name, was just being
nice. I’m not used to pretty boys being
nice. They’re usually a jerk. So Dimas, I’m sorry that I judged you
harshly. It’s just bad experiences and
then I stereotype people.
So after I waited for a while, Wawan, the driver that’s
going to be my new best friend for the next 8 hours came. Off we go to a wilderness, but not without me
getting some normal lunch. Fried chicken
FTW! Hey dude, chicken was a luxury two
days ago for me. So this was a feast.
Eight hours drive kind of make you have to know each
other. Wawan was a bright young man with
great principles. He’s from Palopo and
expecting his firstborn, a son. The
mention of Palopo, again, made me reminisce.
It made me think of Abbas, a friend from Palopo that I lost a few years
back. This trip proved that it is more
than just a business trip!
The ride with Wawan made me realize how old I was! He was 10 years my junior, and sometimes I
spilled out some advice like I know stuff….
That’s what old people do right?
After a long ride, I arrived safely in Samarinda. I said my goodbyes to Wawan and off to my
room. And I took my first decent shower
since Tuesday. My adventure deep into the
Mahakam River really did changed me.
Well not like born again religious or I become this self-righteous
holier-than-thou person no. It just made
me think on all the privileges I have, and how I took them for granted all this
time. Tap water, 24-hour electricity,
speedy internet connection, a paved road!
Now a simple thing like opening my fridge, I can’t help but
think of the people of Long Pahangai, they do not have a fridge, because…yes
the electricity is not for 24 hours, so they can’t run a fridge. So here it is, my three-part entries. I hope you learn something from my
words. I hope it awakens you in a way,
or at least you enjoyed reading this very long essay. If it does at least one of those thing, then
at least I did the first part of my job, to get the word out.
Thank you for reading, and thank you for caring.
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| have to leave you with this receipts, or it didn't happen :p |
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